Trauma surgery

Trauma surgeons practice the last subspecialty of General Surgeryto be created. Comfortable in operating on most body parts and cavities, trauma surgeons carry on the tradition of military surgeons as depicted in the novel M*A*S*H. Trauma surgeons have a high success rate in the sickest of patients who have sustained life and limb-threatening injuries. Trauma surgeons have become specialists in Surgical Critical Care, burns and Emergency Surgery, while in the process creating the new specialty of Acute Care Surgery. Some trauma surgeons have also become involved in research and education through specialty societies such as the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST).

In many hospitals throughout the United Statesand Britain, trauma surgeons primarily stabilize patients and then transfer the patient to the appropriate department. For instance, a patient presenting to the emergency roomwith peripheral nervous systemtrauma would preferably be treated by a neurosurgeon. Likewise, patients with musculoskeletalproblems would be treated by an orthopedic surgeon, and a patient with heart issues by a cardiovascular surgeon, etc. As trauma surgery has increasingly become unoperative in nature, its popularity amongst medical students has fallen drastically.

Further reading

• American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, a website dedicated to the advancement of knowledge in treating and preventing traumatic injuries.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauma+surgery Wikipedia article Trauma surgery.